But there is a question here: if the FO was still planning to look abroad for defensive help, why the hell did they trade away an international spot for Cristman? By my count (and I'd appreciate a correction if either Boyzzz or Shipalane has their green card) we've already got eight internationals and only seven spots to shoehorn them into. And that's not including the possible acquisition of Arzu or Taylor.

Hmmm...

Senior Roster

1. Josh Wicks, GK - trade bait?

2. Troy Perkins, GK

3. (I) Julius James, D

4. Lawson Vaughn, D

5. Marc Burch, D

6. (I) Dejan Jakovic, D

7. Bryan Namoff, D - nursing the noggin

8. Devon McTavish, D/M

9. (I) Floribert N'Galula, D/M

10. Rodney Wallace, D/M

11. (I) Cristian Castillo, M

12. Danny Szetela, M

13. Clyde Simms, M

14. (I) Tiyiselani Shipalane, M/F - can't see both he and Boyzzz making the cut

15. Chris Pontius, M/F

16. Santino Quaranta, M/F

17. (I) Thabiso Khumalo, M/F - see Shipalane, Tiyiselani

18. Adam Cristman, F - acquired from KC for an international spot

19. Jaime Moreno, F

20. (I) Danny Allsopp, F

Developmental Roster

1. (GA) Bill Hamid, GK

2. (I) Milos Kocic, GK - under contract, but for Dev Dollars again?

3. John DiRaimondo, M

4. Brandon Barklage, M - fully recovered?

5. Jordan Graye, D - we took a local kid so he could live at home on Dev Dollars, right?

Trialists

1. Andrew Quinn, GK - danger signals for Kocic?

2. (I?) Lyle Adams, D - I'm assuming he'll want a senior spot, given last year. Also, he grew up in Florida, but does he have citizenship/green card?

Former trialists Nigel White and Otto Loewy make way for more seasoned options Arzu and Taylor, but there's another tidbit in play here. Keeper Andrew Quinn has been brought in supposedly to make up the numbers with Perkins away on Nats duty and Wicks still on the shelf. I wonder.

Consider. We're already one over on the international count and entertaining foreign defenders. That says we need to make cuts. I'd assume our South African speedsters would be first on the chopping block, but we really need to keep at least one of them to provide a change of pace up top that none of our current forwards can provide. Likewise, we'd need to free up a senior roster spot for the new defender. But we'd still need to cut another international to make room.

At this point, your third-string keeper taking up an international spot starts to look pretty damn frivolous. Even if Quinn isn't being brought in to challenge for a roster spot, you've got to think that Kocic's chances of sticking with the club are fading. Which begs a further question. If he wasn't in the club's plans, why not let him audition elsewhere given the previous interest abroad? Or might he be trade bait?

2 comments:

Someone had mentioned the other day that we had picked up an (I) spot in the trade to get Gomez back from Colorado last year. Any idea if this is true? That woulld have given us 9 spots, and with the trade for Cristman putting us back to eight.

It depends how long they traded the spot to us for. For example, we sent an international spot to KC through December 31, 2011 to get Cristman. On January 1, 2012 that spot reverts to us. I think I remember Goff saying he checked with the team and they confirmed seven spots, but I could just be pulling that from my nether regions.

Of course, there's no clear location to either find this information or the status of some of our internationals who would seem to be eligible for green cards. That's also a crap-shoot. Witness Emilio landing his last September, but Fred (who signed with United less than two months after Emilio) still hasn't acquired one.